Fitocracy Featured in Popular Nerd Comic XKCD

Nerd hero and minor internet celebrity Randall Munroe, author of the witty geek comic XKCD, just made a New York start-up’s day. Competitive fitness game Fitocracy has been picking up users at the rate of a Katamari, but today the co-founders were shocked and amazed to see their creation was the basis for today’s comic, “Oversight.”

“Holy crap @Fitocracy is on the latest xkcd comic!!!” co-founder Dick Talens tweeted this morning. “From now on, nobody can ever doubt @DickTalens‘s and my geek cred. @Fitocracy was just mentioned in today’s @XKCD!!” his co-founder Brian Wang echoed. The pair has never been in contact with Mr. Munroe, Mr. Wang said.

The alt-text on the image, where Mr. Munroe often hides a extra joke, says: “I felt so clever when I found a way to game the Fitocracy system by incorporating a set of easy but high-scoring activities into my regular schedule. Took me a bit to realize I’d been tricked into setting up a daily exercise routine.”

The fan website Explain XKCD.com (necessary as the comic’s jokes often depend on knowledge of math, physics or coding) unpacks the comic thus:

Stick figures having sex! Against a wall! Over a couch! In some sort of high flying sex swing! Fitocracy is a web site that turns workouts into a social game by awarding points, badges, levels and all sorts of other gamification. However, according to this cartoon, Fitocracy does not consider sex to be an activity acceptable for its site, despite the high flying nature of Cueball and Megan’s sexual workout.

Comments

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